A few months ago, I came across this chair on the roadside where someone had left it for one of our council pickups. (In my family we have always curiously examined what others have discarded, often finding some treasures to reuse or in this case to repurpose. Are you the same? I have a friend who found a stove to use in her kitchen renovation this way!)  The chair was a bit battered, the cane unravelling, a few spider webs clinging to the legs, but I liked the shape and it was light enough to carry home on foot. As many of you know, I am constantly attracted to chairs and they seem to find their way into my artwork all the time (perhaps a topic for another newsletter).

I didn’t really like the black colour and so I decided to cover it by wrapping it in some of the fabric I have collected over the years. I decided to focus on shades of red. Over many nights in front of the television, I have cut fabric, glued cane and wrapped and wrapped wrapped fiery colour around that monochrome frame. I have journeyed along arm rails and top rails and stiles. Across spindles and aprons and legs. The chair has been turned and twisted and upended. Now it is finished. While that red line crept along it’s frame I have been placing it strategically in view of the front door - a little red glimmer when you glance across to the room. I have to say it is not very comfortable but the addition of a cushion helps. My cat Isaboe has found it to be a good place to sleep.

As I heard recently on a Never Too Small episode (Architect Couple revives small abandoned Naples apartment 4/7/2025), not everything has to be functional. Julie,the Parisian co-owner of architecture firm La Fotosintisi and the featured apartment said that sometimes it is a gift to yourself in a small space to have things that are not functional. This chair meets that criteria. It is an art project, a kind of sculpture before it is a chair. It has already featured in a as yet unfinished painting and is sure to again. Isaboe just looks so fetching curled up on it don’t you think? But I’m sure when there is a crowd here, it will also serve as a seat.  Just don’t forget the cushion.